Autumn/Winter Events
Robert Davies, Engagement Support for Social Sciences gives an update on some forthcoming events and conferences to be held at the library.
Our ‘autumn/winter season’ starts on the evening of the 26th November with the first in our new series of public discussions ‘Enduring Ideas’ which aims to explore some of the key concepts which underpin society.
Professor Matthew Flinders, University of Sheffield and author of Defending Politics, will discuss ‘Enduring Ideas: The Problem with Democracy’. During the evening Professor Flinders will ask and address many questions: does the apparent shift from healthy scepticism to corrosive cynicism have more to do with our unrealistic expectations of politics than a failure of democratic politics; do the problems with democracy – if they exist – tell us more about a failure on the part of the public to understand politics rather than a failure of politicians to understand us; or maybe the problem with democracy is not that it is in short supply but that we have too much of it? He will go on to suggest new ways of thinking about politics to ensure not the death but the life of democracy.
As always we hope our audience will feel free to support, question or challenge the speaker during the question and answer session. Tickets are selling quickly, so why not reserve a place now via our ‘What’s on’ pages.
Why not keep your diary open for the evening of the 17th February 2015, when Dr Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge and author of ‘23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism’ and ‘Economics: The User’s Guide’, will explore the theme ‘Enduring Ideas: The Problem with Capitalism’? The evening will be chaired by Dame Kate Barker DBE, former Monetary Policy Committee member at the Bank of England. Tickets will be on sale soon.
As with our Myths and Realities series of public debates, which ran between 2009 and 2013, the new series in organized in partnership with the Academy of Social Sciences.
In the interim we are delighted to be able to host the British Sociological Association’s Ageing, Body and Society Study Group 6th Annual Conference on Friday 28th November. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Researching Bodies’. The keynote address will be given by Professor Les Back, Goldsmiths, University of London. For further information and details of how to book please visit the BSA website.
Just over a week later we also delighted to host the Social Research Association’s Annual Conference 2014. The title of this year’s conference is ‘Changing Social Research: Evolution or Revolution?’ Details of all the plenary sessions and parallel sessions can be found on the SRA booking page.
Naturally we are already planning for events to take place during spring and summer 2015, so why not keep up-to-date by using our dedicated British Library Social Sciences events page. Here you will also find details of previous events and links to associated podcasts and videos.
Photograph from our 'Epigenetics: beyond nature versus nurture' debate. Copyright British Library Board.